Chelsea beat Malmo 1-0 in Sweden thanks to a Hakim Ziyech strike but an expected glut of goals never materialised against the defensive-minded hosts in Champions League Group H on Tuesday. Chelsea, who hammered Malmo 4-0 when the sides met in London two weeks ago, have nine points. Malmo remain bottom without a point.

The Swedish champions and current league leaders frustrated their visitors in the opening 45 minutes as goalkeeper Johan Dahlin mixed up some superb saves with a few hair-raising spills as his side were forced to defend for long periods.

Chelsea finally made the breakthrough in the 56th minute as Callum Hudson-Odoi out-paced Franz Brorsson and played a perfect ball across the face of the goal for Ziyech to slam home what proved to be the winner in a game that turned out to be tougher than expected for Thomas Tuchel’s side.

In another match, VfL Wolfsburg stunned Champions League Group G leaders Salzburg 2-1 to rekindle their hopes of a top two finish and a spot in the knockout stage.

Wolfsburg, with new coach Florian Kohfeldt making his debut in the competition after taking over last week, struck once in either half with Ridle Baku and Lukas Nmecha to climb up to five points, two behind the Austrians.

Salzburg teenager Karim Adeyemi had a first big chance after only two minutes but he could not quite control his shot from four metres out to fire wide.

Only two minutes later it was Wolfsburg who scored with unmarked Baku slotting in at the far post.

Wolfsburg scored once more against the run of play.